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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Remembering my Grand Uncle Robert John (Bob) Jones

" My word our boys are brave lads, frightened of nothing. I have seen nearly every different type of soldier in the world but give me the old Australians and I am satisfied" Robert Jones 1916

They were probably full of nervous excitement as they left Australia. Little did they realise that over 30% of them would never come home and a further 35% would return home early with severe injuries. This was a journey that would change all their lives and that of their families forever.

RMS Osterley

My Grand Uncle, Robert John Jones, was one of 153 young men of the 24th Battalion, 5th Reinforcement to leave Australia aboard the RMS Osterley, on 29th September 1915, on their way to Egypt. Bob, as he preferred to be called, had just turned eighteen earlier in the month. Additionally, he was likely still grieving for his mother, who had died five months earlier.

Robert John Jones (Bob) was born on the 2nd September 1897 in the small mining community of Creswick, Victoria. He was the eldest of the three children of Robert William Jones and Roseana Jones (nee Atikins).

Bob, a miner like his father, lied about his age on his enlistment application. However, he was 18 by the time he embarked.

He was stationed at various parts of Egypt for his first six months. He had his first stint in hospital with "minor nose trouble" at Minya in March 1916.

It seems that Bob was a rebel. In 1914, when a cadet, he was charged at Daylesford Police court with failing to attend a compulsory drill and breach of discipline, specifically talking on parade (several times). He was fined 10s and confined in Queenscliff fortress for 7 days. You can read more here.

Click to enlarge

"You, Jones are just starting into life, and later whether you will like it or not you will become a member of the citizen forces. Your obedience of the militia laws must be willing and hearty. In the old country they have a very ready method of dealing with those who do not comply in this particular and you would find yourself clapped into the guard house. You look like a boy who will make a good man, and you should esteem it a privilege to belong to the first units of the Commonwealth forces".

Bob's war records show that he was often "A.W.L." (Absent without Leave), he missed many parades and was absent from several Roll Calls. In total he was fined 52 days pay or £13 over a three year period for his indiscretions. However, he remained steadfast and loyal when it really mattered.

After two weeks of extreme battle at Pozieres France, Bob received a "Gun Shot Wound Severe" to his left arm on the 5th August 1916. This day was described by Major McSharry as "the heaviest barrage the battalion ever saw". Bob was lucky to survive as "Dead and wounded lay everywhere, some killed on their stretchers, with the stretcher-bearers lying dead beside them"1. "Anyone who had come out of the previous months heavy fighting could shake hands with himself" Bob Jones wrote home to his father

Mr R Jones, of Vincent Street, Daylesford has received a letter from his son, Pte R. Jones, from the 11th General Hospital, stating that he had been wounded in the arm, and that he is improving. He added that he went through a very heavy engagement on the 4th? August. He and six of his mate were buried, and when they were got out, three were wounded and the rest dead. "We were very lucky to escape with wounds, and under the heavy artillery fire were again very lucky to get to dressing station." he concluded

"I always go in with the intention of coming out again........something tells me that I am going to come right through"Bob Jones in a letter to his father in 1916

Within 20 days of receiving the Gun Shot wound, Bob was back in action. He was one of the lucky ones as by the end of 1916, twenty of the men in the 24th Battalion, who had arrived on the same boat as Bob, were dead and a further 13 had been sent home injured.

Bob was now in the 2nd Machine Gun company.

On the 30th October 1917 in France, Bob was "Blown Up" and received "Shell Wounds to Head and Right Ankle". The war record states;"Oct. 1917, while working M. Gun, was blown up. Carried on for 5 hours till relieved. Became unconscious and remembered nothing for 6 days. Gradually lost power in L. arm.17-12-17. Can make no movement of arm or hand except slight flexion of fingers. All muscles of arm and forearm except flexors, do not respond to faradism or galvanism, and A.C.C. greater than K.C.C. Gradually improving".

DAYLESFORD.SOLDIER WOUNDED.Mr R. Jones, of Vincent street, Daylesford, has been advised by the Base Records Office that his son, Pte R. Jones, of the 2nd Machine Gun Company (late 24th Battalion), is in the Richmond (UK) Military Hospital suffering from gunshot wound in head and right ankle.

Bob was sent to a hospital in Boulogne, France and then England. Nearly 6 months later on the 10th April 1918, he was transferred back to Australia by the hospital ship Borda, to Caulfield hospital, Victoria.

Bob wrote a letter to obtain a copy of his medical records (to apply for TPI pension)

He was discharged as medically unfit (TPI) on the 21st November 1918 (10 days after the guns fell silent and the war ended). Bob may have survived the war, receiving the 1914/1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, but I believe another battle was about to begin.

After my research, I can totally understand why, and I cannot begin to imagine the horrors that he saw on a daily basis. One of the men in Bob's regiment reported a mates death "I was about 30 yards from him and saw him killed by a shell. There was nothing left to bury".
Bob once reprimanded a family member who mentioned the war, something to the effect of "You have no idea what we did or saw. It is better left unspoken."

Our family know very little about Bob, besides what the records tell us. My grandmother, his sister, did not talk about him, except to say that he had been burnt with gas, had a metal plate in his head and the war had changed him. Family stories indicate that Bob was a bit of a nomad, who frequented the hotels. My Uncle would often drink with him and describe him as a "great old fellow" who would take him fishing and ferreting.

Bob was living at his daughters home in Newborough, Victoria, prior to dying of Lung Cancer and Bronchopneumonia on the 11th September 1967, age 70.

This post has been revised and republished for Remembrance Day, 11th November 2013, when we remember those who died in the war. Bob was lucky enough to make it back home. However, I believe that a very large part of him died in the war and the man who came home was very different from the boy who embarked on that journey, nearly 100 years ago.

27 comments:

What an amazing life he led, and such an interesting accounting you have posted. I can't imagine the kind of daily struggle, or the absolute loss of one's friend left with nothing to bury, these moments between their victories and hero moments, I'm sure lived long in their memory of it all. Even the survivors of such tragic moments in their life carry the sadness throughout their days. It is so good to have these days of remembrance knowing they are smiling down at all their loved ones.

A worthy story, Sharon. At first I thought, with all his As.W.O.L, that his heart wasn't in it, but obviously, I was wrong. After surviving so much, he certainly must have come home a "changed" man. The metal plate in his head alone would render his brain-function quite different, and the lung cancer was probably a result of life in trenches and possibly gas. You do him a great and justified honour with this post.

Thank you Kat. Yes I agree, I thought that his lung cancer was possibly related to the gas but then again there are many lung problems through out the family history. See my Life Expectancy or Death Chart posts.

what horrors have been seen in wars! The thing I heard about WWI was the use of mustard gas. Wars show the most inhumane ways man creates. You have a lot of information through medical records. In the US, November 11 is now called Veterans Day; when I was a kid, it was still called Armistice Day.

I wrote about my great uncle too. Amazingly he escaped the war with very few physical injuries - almost no time out of the war in hospital, just one battle after another. After what he would have seen, it was amazing that he was such a lovely gentle man all his life.

Poor, poor man! Like so many youngsters who signed up his whole life was changed entirely thereafter. It sometimes seems the ones who died were the lucky ones, as they died heroes. The survivors carried the horrors and the loss of friends all their lives. They found different ways to deal with it. Such a tragedy.

This man, like many other in WWI, suffered horrors enough and did well to survive. Being subjected to electric shock treatments (faradism & galvanism) would have been hard to endure as the treatments were primitive to say the least. Your uncles story must be told and retold.